A mother and her three-year-old son had a lucky escape after they narrowly avoided an 'ferocious' explosion which wrecked their home.

Amy Rooke, 21, and her son Kayden Byrnes had popped across the road to her parents' house just minutes before a stove exploded in her lounge blowing the room to bits.

The wood burning stove, which weighs 60 pounds, was propelled across the room in the blast bringing down half the chimney breast at the semi-detached house.

Destruction: Amy Rooke's father Dave inspects lounge in his daughter's house after a wood burning stove exploded tearing the room to bits

Ms Rooke, from Halifax, West Yorkshire, said: 'We were just unbelievably lucky. It just so happened that my little boy wanted to go over the road because he wanted to show his grandad his Thomas the Tank Engine toy that wasn't working anymore.